Introduction:

The Whangateau Harbour Group congratulates the Local Board on its vision and commitment to building a community led plan for the Rodney area. We look forward to working closely with the Local Board to develop a priority plan for the care, protection and health of the Whangateau Harbour and the streams and waterways which feed into it.

Our group has as its primary objective, to help local people work together to plan and implement sustainable management and protection of the harbour, land and other resources in the Whangateau Harbour catchment area.

In our submission we wish to focus on the outcomes for Rodney’s harbours, waterways and environment and the three objectives which aim to ensure they are cared for, protected and healthy with specific relation to the Whangateau catchment area. We will look at each of these three objectives in turn.

The health of our environment and our waterways and harbours is of vital importance to the Rodney district. In particular the Whangateau Harbour as it is a significant resource because of its benthic habitat which provides a nursery for fish breeding stocks, is important as a feeding ground for fish and stingrays and is the only known significant parore nursery in the Hauraki Gulf.

The Whangateau harbour is also an important natural resource which provides clean waters and abundant food for a variety of bird species. Migratory birds such as the bar tailed godwits, banded dotterel, South Island pied oystercatchers, wrybill and turnstones as well as local birds which feed there all rear round; dotterel, variable oystercatcher, pied stilt, white faced heron, reef heron, shags, Caspian tern, white fronted and fairy tern and royal spoonbill.

It also provides a safe recreational area for boating, paddle boarding, kayaking, snorkelling, swimming and at low tide, walking. The Omaha Sand Spit and Horseshoe Island are nesting sites for some of our most endangered birds. [Read more…]

Fish life around the Rena remains during salvage operations. – Darryl Torckler

An attempt to save the marine life that flourished on Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga after the Rena was wrecked could now mean councils have more say on the way coastal areas, including fisheries, are managed. [Read more…]